Appeal to Mothers
Relative to the Great Cause of the Physical,
Mental and Moral Ruin of Many
of the Children of Our Time.
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My Sisters, my apology for addressing you on this subject is, I am a
mother, and feel alarmed for those children and youth who by solitary vice
are ruining themselves for this world, and for that which is to come. Let
us
closely inquire into this subject from the physical, mental and moral
points
of view. {ApM 5.1}
Mothers, let us first view the results of this vice upon the physical
strength. Have you not marked the lack of healthful beauty, of strength,
and
power of endurance in your dear children? Have you not felt saddened as
you
have watched the progress of disease upon them which has baffled your
skill,
and that of physicians? You listen to numerous complaints of headache,
catarrh, dizziness, nervousness, pain in the shoulders and side, loss of
appetite, pain in the back and limbs, wakeful, feverish nights, of tired
feelings in the morning, and great exhaustion after exercising? As you
have
seen the beauty of health disappearing, and have marked the sallow
countenance, or the unnaturally flushed face have you been aroused
sufficiently to look
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beneath the surface, to inquire into the cause of this physical decay?
Have
you observed the astonishing mortality among the youth? {ApM 5.2}
And have you not noticed that there was a deficiency in the mental
health of your children? That their course seemed to be marked with
extremes? That they were absent-minded? That they started nervously when
spoken to? And were easily irritated? Have you not noticed when occupied
upon a piece of work they would look dreamingly, as though the mind was
elsewhere? When they came to their senses, they were unwilling to own the
work as coming from their hands, it was so full of mistakes, and showed
such
marks of inattention? Have you not been astonished at their wonderful
forgetfulness? The most simple and oft-repeated directions would be soon
forgotten. They might be quick to learn, but it would be of no special
benefit to them. The mind would not retain it. What they might learn
through
hard study, when they would use their knowledge, is missing, lost through
their sieve-like memory. Have you not noticed their reluctance to engage
in
active labor? And their unwillingness to perseveringly accomplish that
which
they have undertaken, which taxes the mental as well as the physical
strength? The tendency of many is to live in indolence. {ApM 6.1}
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